Hollowpox The Hunt for Morrigan Crow - Jessica Townsend Page 0,54
the horsewun and he bolted from the theatre, knocking Dame Chanda over. Others are saying someone lit the fire deliberately. Oh, and … do you have a nine?’
‘Go fish,’ said Morrigan, chewing on the side of her mouth. Jack groaned as he added another card to his already loaded hand. ‘Those things all happened. Just … not in that order. Do you have a queen?’
He curled his lip and tossed the card at her. ‘It was you, then? The fire?’
‘Yep.’
Jack looked like he wasn’t sure whether to laugh. ‘You just … you just felt like setting fire to the Nevermoor Opera House, or … ?’
Morrigan rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t be stupid.’
‘Well, I don’t know, do I?’ He leaned forward and lowered his voice. ‘What happened?’
Morrigan described Victor’s sudden attack and all that followed.
‘I didn’t know what to do,’ she said, ‘so I just … I don’t know, I thought I could frighten him or something.’
‘Mmm. Because you’re so terrifying, yeah,’ mused Jack.
‘Shut up.’
He smirked. ‘Seven?’
‘Go fish. It was just supposed to be a little burst of fire, but … well, you know. Fire.’
‘It spreads, yeah,’ he said. ‘Famous for it.’
‘Shut up. Ace?’
‘Go fish. Anyway, seems like it worked,’ he pointed out. ‘It drove him away.’
Morrigan winced, remembering how Victor had become so confused and agitated by the fire that he’d ploughed right through the theatre doors. ‘I guess so.’
‘It’s not a coincidence, though, is it?’ Jack said darkly, leaning back in his chair again. ‘De Flimsé, Brutilus Brown, now this. It can’t be a coincidence. Something’s very wrong.’
Morrigan couldn’t agree more. And she had a feeling that Jupiter was out there right now, trying to discover exactly what that something was.
Fen returned to the Deucalion a little later, but Jupiter wasn’t with her and she couldn’t – or wouldn’t – say where he’d gone. Morrigan and Jack pounced on the Magnificat the moment she sauntered into the lobby, and followed her all the way up the spiral staircase at a trot.
‘Where have you been all day?’ Jack demanded.
‘Nunya Business Boulevard,’ said Fenestra. ‘Lovely spot, wish I was there now.’
‘What happened after you left the opera house?’ Morrigan asked. ‘Did you catch him, or not?’
‘In a manner of speaking. Where’s Dame Chanda?’
‘Smoking Parlour,’ said Jack, popping up on her other side. ‘What does that mean, “in a manner of speaking”?’
‘Must you surround me?’ Fen muttered, rolling her eyes. ‘It means I didn’t exactly have to catch him. I chased the menace for blocks, nearly broke a leg trying to dodge all the chaos he left behind him. Two traffic accidents, three smashed-up shopfronts. Even when I finally cornered him down a dead-end alley, he tried to smash through the brick wall.’
Morrigan winced. She saw flashes of Brutilus Brown. The mindless, violent aggravation, as if he simply wanted to destroy something. Destroy her.
‘Hurt himself badly, too,’ Fen continued as they entered the Smoking Parlour. ‘Blood everywhere. Then he got up and tried again. And again.’
‘What?’ said Jack. ‘Why would he—’
‘That horsewun was out of his mind,’ came a quiet voice from the daybed, and Frank’s head popped up from a pile of cushions. Dame Chanda had fallen asleep on the chaise. ‘We all saw it in the theatre, anyone could tell. Completely off his rocker.’
Fen clawed at the rug in front of the fire. ‘He ran into the wall four times. It’s like there was something inside him that just wanted to create havoc. Then he turned around and looked at me, and he just … gave up. Lay down on the ground.’
‘If a Magnificat cornered me in a dark alley,’ said Jack, ‘I’d probably give up and lie down too.’
‘No, it wasn’t like that,’ Fen said thoughtfully, curling up on the floor like a cinnamon roll. ‘He wasn’t afraid of me. I don’t think he’d even realised I was chasing him until that moment. He was just on a rampage. I think he’d have had a go at me too, except … he couldn’t. He’d used every ounce of whatever he had in him. All the life drained out of his eyes. Didn’t blink. Barely breathed.’
‘Like Juvela De Flimsé,’ said Morrigan. ‘She was found lying half-buried in the snow. What happened then, Fen?’
The Magnificat yawned widely, showing a mouthful of sharp teeth, and gave a sleepy shrug. ‘Stealth showed up and took him.’
‘The Stealth?’ Morrigan yelped. ‘What did they say? Where did they take him?’
‘No idea,’ said Fen. ‘They’re the Stealth, they didn’t stop for a lovely chat.’